Happy Birthday Mister First President Sir!

Mr. Turner

If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend checking out Mike Leigh's 2014 film Mr. Turner, about the British landscape master J.M. W. Turner  - the original "Painter of light" - (so suck it Kincaid you dead hack! I know, but it needed to be said, again.)

Not only is Timothy Spall's performance as Turner (I reeelly want to say "unvarnished", but I shall refrain. Or not.) riveting in its intensity, sensitivity and coarseness, but the film itself is a breathtakingly gorgeous demonstration of incredible lighting palette control and shot composition. Not content to mimic Turner's palettes or recreate vistas that show up in his paintings, as many biopics of artists tend to do, Mike Leigh creates a convincing and cohesive vision of how the early Victorian world might have looked. Beautifully manipulated natural lighting galore, yes, but also the underlying notion that the entire world around us is masterpiece worthy, from the lowliest butcher shop or street scene to the incredible, heroic vistas of the British coastline. I found it a wonderfully compelling, screen grab-worthy feast for the eyes.

 Here are some shots to whet your appetite:

Its Monday - what better time for three tasteful nudes?

Especially since we're all probably just getting back to work after a (hopefully) nice long Holiday break, a page with three modest nudes seemed appropriate. If you consider a couple of tiny graphite marks on paper graphic representations of a female nipple, then these are definitely NSFW!

Its rare that I like everything on the same sketchbook page when I fill it with multiple drawings, but for some reason I think these nudes are not at all horrible, and they're all done on the same page!